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July 29, 2010

Adventures in composting, Portland-style

In an effort to live up to its reputation as a "green" city, Portland has decided to try a new system of garbage collection that will force residents to compost. It used to be that our trash and recycling bins were picked up once a week, and yard waste was picked up once every two weeks. In the test zone, which includes our home, the yard waste and garbage schedules switched. In addition, the city dropped off a small gray "Portland Composts!" bucket for collecting discarded food and the like. You're supposed to collect food waste in the bucket, then dump the bucket's contents into the yard waste bin.

In the beginning, I was fairly vigilant about emptying the bucket every night and then cleaning it. Then I got less vigilant, and this morning, we awoke to a kitchen counter full of ants . . . . AHHHH!!!

By the way, we discovered a homemade ant-icide formula -- 1 part boric acid, 2 parts sugar, dissolved in water, soaked into cotton balls. Ants come for the sugar and take boric acid back to their nest. Boric acid is lethal to ants. (Yea for chemical warfare?)